Holly and I are in Disney World for her Ten-Year Old Trip!  We started our tour at EPCOT. We were very excited.

We boarded the monorail, which arrived right in the middle of our hotel, the Contemporary Resort.

We had a Fast Pass waiting for us at our most anticipated destination – Test Track. This is where you design a prototype car on special screens and then test it out. Holly designed our car – pink with sparkles – and we boarded a sample of our design. It was Holly’s first roller-coaster – and the fastest ride at Disney. She loved it and laughed and screamed (in a good way) the whole way. Aunt Christy liked it, too.

Around the World

After that we were pretty hungry. EPCOT has pavilions for 11 countries, and we set our sights on Mexico. They had a restaurant that was set in a market area, overlooked by a Mayan temple and a volcano. Best of all, they served chips and salsa (and margaritas) – yum.

Properly energized, we set out to explore all the countries. Holly was on a mission to buy souvenirs for the family and wanted to hit every shop on our tour around the world (and there are a lot of them!). In China, she carefully studied her options and decided on a purple parasol for herself – they even wrote her name on it in Chinese. I could tell she felt very sophisticated walking around after that.

We stopped for pastries and tea in France, and I pointed out the sight of my most embarrassing moment growing up. My family and I went to the very fancy French restaurant, which was on the second floor with a big winding staircase. I was about her age and felt very worldly as I was descending the stairs – having dressed up especially for this dinner, where I even tried escargot (and liked it). Truthfully, I felt that I was probably a little more sophisticated than my mom, dad, and little sister so was walking a couple of steps ahead of them when my foot slipped, I fell on my backside, and slid from the very top in a winding arc to the very bottom, where a crowd was waiting in line. I jumped up, exclaiming, “I’m OK, I’m OK” and ran out the door. I can laugh about it now, and Holly thought it was a good story.

After a couple more rides, it was time for our own dinner. We decided on Morocco, which featured bellydancers. Holly even got to join in. She is a ballerina back home (she was just promoted to en pointe), and her dancing experience certainly paid off – she was by far the best bellydancer out there.

We skipped home – the purple parasol still up (even at night). We had to get to bed a little early – we have a date with Cinderella in the morning!